Many current devices and systems employ integrated circuits (ICs) that are customized and tailored to a particular application. Such ICs include microprocessors that execute software that has been custom designed for the particular application in question or custom designed/implemented integrated circuits such as, without limitation, a programmable logic device, such as a field programmable gate array (FPGA), for which the logic functions have been defined (programmed) by the user using the appropriate development software. For example, the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) systems is expanding rapidly in a wide range of application areas. RFID systems consist of radio frequency tags or transponders and radio frequency readers or interrogators. The RFID tags include ICs and an antenna for communication over an air interface. The RFID readers query the RFID tags for information stored on them, which can be, for example, identification numbers, user written data, or sensed data. RFID systems have thus been applied in many application areas to track, monitor, report and manage items as they move between physical locations.
Most RFID systems are implemented using customized requirements that are defined ad hoc. In addition, multiple, often competing, standards exist for RFID hardware, software and data management. As a result, in most applications, RFID tag and reader hardware and software must be specifically designed for each particular application, and must be modified or re-designed every time the specification for the current application is adjusted, new applications are introduced, and/or the standards are modified or new standards are developed. Thus, as RFID systems exemplify, the underlying feature in many IC applications is the use of proprietary hardware and software that is non-reusable and tailored to the particular application in question.
The design, development, and fabrication of customized ICs constitute a very costly and time consuming process. As an example, the license for a single seat for software to do commercial IC design can cost as much as $350,000 per year. In addition, the salary of a person qualified to design an IC device can be significant. As a result, many small companies are, from a cost standpoint, prohibited from designing their own ICs, and must instead pay for another party to do the customization.
There are also numerous commercially available generic ICs, such as those on RFID tags and ICs used in other communications applications or related areas, that include embedded microprocessors. These generic ICs can be customized for a particular application using the software that is executed by the IC microprocessor. However, with prior art technology, this customization process is difficult and costly, and therefore is not always a viable solution for many companies, particularly smaller ones, to do on their own. Co-pending application Ser. No. 11/406,194, entitled “Method And Software Tool For Automatic Generation Of Software For Integrated Circuit Processors” and assigned to the assignee hereof, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, addresses this problem by providing a method and software tool for generating software code for execution by an embedded processor of an IC, such as those on an RFID tag, that includes a compilation flow that automatically generates the software code based on a simple input description of the IC's standards or requirements.
As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the overhead of using an embedded microprocessor based controller in an application such as an RFID application is considerable. For example, many current embedded microprocessors operate in the hundreds of mW range and can require hundreds of instructions to be executed to perform a particular function, such as the generation of a required response in the RFID domain. Non-microprocessor ICs, on the other hand, may be designed so as to consume less energy. However, as described above, such design is currently very costly and time consuming and thus prohibitive for many small companies. It would therefore be advantageous to have a hardware based solution that enables simplified and cost effective design and creation of custom ICs.